Monday, December 29, 2008

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday! To me it feels as though 2008 flew by. Last week was February, when I went to San Francisco with the Cookes and learned how to crochet (the two are, indeed, oddly linked). A few days later was summer and I rode my bike downtown for Wednesday Comic Book (aka Superman Club, aka Jimmy Olsen Club) lunch with the guys. Yesterday was Halloween and I dressed up like the Fly from the old Vincent Price movie. Mere hours ago Christmas came and went and now we're at the dawn of a new year. Incredible!

Next year I will pay closer attention to the passage of time. I'm quite convinced that my drawing table contains some kind of worm hole. Or perhaps it's the internet that steals away the days. Whatever the culprit I will find it out and slow the passage of time. This is my New Year's Resolution.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas is just around the corner. The first bit of snow and cold weather are a reminder to me that I haven't even started to think about my annual Christmas card yet. This year I managed to come up with an image pretty early on, sketched it out in a day and was finished by the following afternoon.

This first sketch had everything I wanted in it and would have been my card were it not for a distinct moment of clarity. I was working on another view of the same scene when a carol of bells rang loudly in my head. The bells said "BORING!" The bells were right. What a boring scene. Boring Santa. Boring kid. Boring everything.

So I started sketching up a tighter shot. One with just the kid and a bigger, fatter, beardier Santa. I thought of all the talented cartoonists I know and how embarassed I'd be if I sent them the really boring card this Christmas. I thought about Christmas specials on TV and how the best ones have a distinct look. Santa in each show has a unique appearance. You'd never mistake the Rudolph Santa, for example, with the Santa from Nightmare Before Christmas. So I imagined what Santa would look like if I made a Christmas Special.

In my Christmas Special Santa is just a little bit weary of kids bringing him gigantic lists of things they simply MUST have. He's tired of them not saying "Please" and "Thank you" when he gives them a candy cane. He's tired of dry cleaning his beard to wash out the sticky stains from their grubby little chocolate covered fingers and wearing extra padding on his knee to soak up the pee from their urine soaked trousers.

He's especially tired of not being asked what he'd like for Christmas. Is it too unreasonable that someone might bring HIM a gift for a change.

And the little tot will cry, because he doesn't understand why Santa is being mean to him. The mothers in the line would glare at Santa and "tsk tsk" his rudeness, snatching their children away from the "worst Santa they've ever seen". One of them might even call Santa a nasty name. They might suggest he find another line of work, one that doesn't involve terrorizing children. They'll file complaints with the store manager, exaggerating the experience with suggestions of "alcohol on his breath" and "he called my son a snot-trough!"

Meanwhile, Santa (who just so happens to be the REAL Santa) will take off for Africa where he'll build houses for Habitat for Humanity and the people who live in those houses will share their food with him and thank him for all of his hard work and he'll be appreciated.

In my Christmas Special Santa might just call the whole thing off and leave the parents with the job of filling up stockings and putting presents under their trees. Maybe then they'll see what it was he did for them year after year. By the time they realize their mistake it'll be too late. So have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad and a Jolly ___________! (fill in the blank with celebration of choice).

Saturday, December 06, 2008

This is my first time drawing Astro Boy, though I've been a fan of his since I was a kid. I used to carefully watch each weeks episode so that when Astro reported his adventure at the end I'd be able to catch his one inaccuracy. Was it right for Astro to teach kids that it's all right to lie if you're just kidding around?I had one small problem with the above image...I wasn't sure of the short form for "Kilograms". I wasn't even sure if that was a whole lot of weight! Did I drop high school math and science too early? Perhaps. But I obviously wasn't paying enough attention anyway. I know that One Million of anything is an awful lot. So one million kg's of electo-gravitic weight ought to be impressive.I confess that I am embarassed by my ignorance.

Here's Astro Boy being caught by surprise. Perhaps he just learned that I had to look up Metric weights on Wikipedia in order to complete the above drawing. I still use the old British system of weighing by Stone. I weigh exactly the same as one Chris Stone.My good buddy Mike Cho pointed out that Astro looks a little like he's giving the finger. It's the way I simplified the fist with the first finger sticking out slightly. Mike's right, though. It does look a bit "bird-ish".

best,j.bonep.s. I have since educated myself further in matters of Metric. I am now better informed.

Monday, November 24, 2008

J.Bone not only did the cover for this issue, he did the interiors! Yay!It's Superman's birthday and everything is adorable, from Lex Luthor being cranky about not being invited to the party, to Batman explaining pinatas to the readers

A not so good review from Adam Dechanel for the Superman HomepageStory - 2: Quoting Myra in a script by David Odell "Jeez, they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days!" Lex Luthor, the greatest criminal mastermind of our time is jealous of a birthday party? This is just Dora & Diego in capes isn't it? I appreciate them trying to filter the Lex/Superman dynamic down to the base level for children, but even they wouldn't buy a story like this.

Art - 3: Ugh, the constant smiling makes you think Colgate should be paying for advertising, even more than Mattel for enforcing this book's existence! It's just not fun anymore, it was nice to see the character designs for other Superman villains but everything just seems so 'cookie cutter'.

Cover Art - 4: Superman takes centre stage in this book for once!... Hey, is that ME in the bottom corner... ooh I'm famous! Joking aside it's a nice fun, family friendly cover - where the heck is my slice of that gigantic cake??

The art is "Ugh!" Really? Adam apparently doesn't like smiling or cookies. I think somebody needs a hug. Super bonus points for quoting from Supergirl, though.

This Johnny DC title does what no title in the DC Unverse proper did this year –- it wishes Superman a happy birthday. After all, it's not every day that a globally recognized, American legend turns 70. To celebrate, a Superman museum is opened in the Johnny DCU, much to the lament of the Flash.

Fisch provides a serviceable title, easily approachable for younger readers with just enough nods and winks for the older crowd that is trying to help foster comics reading for those newer comics fans. The art is simplistic, but well crafted, as it replicates the chunky feel of the toy line these heroes are based upon.Lex Luthor, of course, shows his bald head to ruin the affairs of the day, with a mischievous plan that smacks of the types of schemes he used to cook up in the Superman stories of the 1960s.

In a time when Superman seems to be encountering a great deal of strife, a title like this does provide a nice reminder that comics were once geared towards a less stressed-out readership. The fact that it includes a recognition and celebration of Superman's birthday with his best friends and his dearest family members only adds sweeter frosting to the birthday cake.

A "less stressed-out readership"! I like that. I really do read this book every month...okay, it's my job. I read the scripts in order to work up a cover idea. But I would be reading this series anyway because I think Sholly is doing such a great job of updating the old World's Finest, Superman Family and Justice League type stories from the 60's. You know, when Batman used to smile and villains were foiled by Green Lantern wearing a rubber Superman mask! When Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite were just imps causing mischief not bizarre dwarfish demons tearing up the Universe with death-hungry powers.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Wednesday the 18th of November is the day Issue #9 of the Super Friends hits the stands. This is the issue with Superman's birthday celebration, the first appearance of the Super Friends' Super Baby and the first issue where I draw the interior art (as well as the cover).I loved drawing the interiors for this issue. Sholly Fisch wrote a super fun story and I had a super fun time with it.

One of my favourite parts was the Superman Museum and Hall of Villains because I got to draw a few of Superman's greatest Foes.

Mxyzptlk turned out to be my favourite of all the favourite parts about this story. He only appears as a statue, which is a darn shame. Maybe I'll get to draw him again for another story.

If you've got a comic shop near you, and you feel the inclination, pop in and take a gander at this issue. Let me know what you thought!

Also, the dear sweet Nicole at Pageslap blogged about me and my odd new hobby! I started a new blog dedicated to my Amigurumi! Amigurumi is a fancy Japanese word that means "crochet dolls". Yup, I crochet. And I make dolls. Superhero dolls. Check 'em out at my new blog, Skein and Bones.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

For the past few weeks I've been elbow deep in Papier-mâché...or paper mache for those who don't read Français. I'd decided on what could be a really cool costume if I could only pull it off. I really wanted to be the FLY! Specifically the version seen in the RETURN OF THE FLY!

I wanted the giant eyes and threatening mandibles, claw hand and lab coat. So I took myself back to my grade school days and crafted up a paper mache head and hand. This is the mess I made on the dining room floor crafting my Fly helmet. You can see all the tools of the Papier-mâché craft...the thin layer of newspaper to protect the floor, bowl of flour/water mix which is your glue, the strips of paper for covering your sculpt, foam head and kid's helmet on which I originally created the tape-and-paper sculpture, bottles of alcohol for holding up hand parts for drying and the craftsman in his pajamas getting glue in his arm hair.

That's right, I didn't even bother to bathe before starting my mâché-terpiece.

This is the first version of the head almost ready for paint. Something was...bugging...me about the eyes. They weren't BUGGY enough. I tried a few different things with wads of paper before I remembered another trick learned in grade school...balloons. We would cover balloons with Papier-mâché (and once we did it with string coated in glue). When the mush is dry you simply pop the balloon, pull it out and you've got a lovely bulbous shape to work with. I cut the "balloon" in half and taped 'em to my Fly helmet.

A little extra paper for brow shapes, another few layers of Papier-mâché and you've got yourself a relatively passable fly head. You'll note I left a face area open. On dark Halloween nights you never want to cover your face or eyes. It's for safety, sure, but also because you need your mouth free for eating and drinking and eyes free for seeing all the envious looks of other Halloweeners as they eyeball your awesome costume.

Oh, and there's the hand all mashed together with crumpled mash paper as texture.

Some black spray paint, green paint and super shiny spray on lacquer and you're done. I finished this two weeks before because I had a super fun Halloween party to go to the weekend before Halloween.

The suit is from Value Village (where I do all my Halloween shopping). Lab coat was borrowed from a Doctor friend, black face make-up (also Value Village) to sorta hide my human face and the costume is complete.

Oh, and did I also have a mini version of my head on a fly's body? Yes, as a matter of fact I did. That you will see when I take some good pictures of it :)

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

This here is my contribution to Wonder Woman Day! The art will be auctioned off and money will be donated to a women's shelter. I wanted to do something showing Wonder Woman's strength but also that she supports her sisters! You can check out more about the charity and Wonder Woman Day at Andy Mangel's Wonder Woman Museum.

Monday, September 15, 2008

"Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze!" Seriously, Joss Whedon and gang had better do more with Dr. Horrible. I haven't been this obsessed with something since...Avenue Q! Or maybe Sky Captain before I saw the actual movie. Seeing the movie cured me of any obsession.

Penny, with her adorable little overbite, is too much fun not to draw. Like all damsels she falls quickly under Captain Hammer's spell.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

"Here lies everything. The world I wanted at my feet." Dr. Horrible loses his lady-love and thus is created a whole new kind of evil. I love the finale song. When the music amps up into that weird, eerie sound right before Dr. Horrible enters the board room and delivers his final horrible lines gives me chills.

And here's the art minus the semi-cheesy background. I don't know that he looks so awful much like Neil Patrick Harris but I hope it at least looks like my other version of Dr. Horrible.

Monday, August 25, 2008

As promised, Penny from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I felt the need to draw her at her most angelic. In life she was torn between two loves. Three loves if you count the homeless. There's the man who saved her life but who turned out to be sort of a creep...and the man she met while doing laundry who was secretly a creep with an even deeper secret...that Dr. Horrible is really kind of a nice guy.

There's a Dr. Horrible image to go with this but I haven't finished the colours yet. Captain Hammer to follow!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Have you all seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? I love, love, love it! Neil Patrick Harris is absolutely perfect as the evil Dr. Horrible. The songs are stuck in my head...in a good way. I just had to sit down and doodle the characters. Naturally Dr. Horrible, the star of the show, was the first. I wanted him to be sorta goofy like a Warner Bros cartoon mad scientist. Those mad scientists always have giant craniums and big black eyebrows. Mr. Harris doesn't actually have the big black eyebrows.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Oh, Wonder Woman's off to Washington eagle friend in tow. What they'll do when they arrive the world will never know.

Let's call this another pitch that didn't get accepted. Hey, these things happen all the time. Meanwhile I'm having a ball drawing the Super Friends! What a fun book. And have you guys been reading the Tiny Titans? Art Baltazar is brilliant!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Superman first appeared in Action Comics June 1938. I drew this for my Super Friends editor just for kicks. I really dig working on that book and drawing DC's big six in that cutesy, bulky action figure based way. This also the second birthday image I've drawn with a splatted cake.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Exciting news brings me to post today. A buddy send me a link to the Playboy blog which has a little piece on Darwyn's and my Wonder Woman story in the recent New Frontier one-shot. Clicking the link will take you directly to the blog post...which is fairly safe-for-work. There is no nudity, though cleavage is abundant in the banner ads. My feeling is the article is light-hearted and the writer gets that Cooke and I were having a bit of fun.It's pretty cool! Just so I'm not posting without putting up artwork, here are some sketches done recently just for fun. Wonder Woman is pretty much my default doodle character. Gosh but I love 'er!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Ramon Perez asked a bunch of us, his artist buddies, to work up some Hulk themed images for a recent job. I like the Hulk but I've always preferred to read the adventures of She-Hulk. Blame it on John Byrne whose run on the character made me fall in love with her. I think what I liked most about her was that she wasn't on the run from anyone (or anything...or herself). With She-Hulk you have straightforward superhero adventuring un-encumbered by debilitating self-hatred or public fear (see pretty much any Hulk story).

I want to plug a few things that I hope you'll check out. First I want to point out the comic strips going on over at Transmission X. Every strip is highly reccommendable and the site itself is multiple award nominated (Shusters and Eisners).

I've finally added a link to the guy who sells my art, Albert Moy! I've recently sent Albert a bunch of pages from my work on Gotham Girls and Spider-Man: Tangled Web. He's also got my Spirit work.

And finally, if you haven't seen it yet, go check out the IRON MAN movie. Not that it needs my help to be a tremendous success...but I just loved the movie and encourage everyone to see it. It's just so nice when a comic book movie is entertaining, true to the spirit of the character, well acted, looks good and is fantastically well written. If you want to see how true Favreau and crew stuck to the Tony Stark character read (or re-read) the origin of Iron Man. The Essential Iron Man collection available at any big bookstore is the best place to find the story.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Spring is sprung,The Grass is rizz,Do you know who myfavourite Super Tot is?

Of course Wonder Tot would be my favourite of all the Super Tots. I did this just for fun when sketching the other day. I recently got the Hot Stuff The Little Devil Collection from Dark Horse so I've been doodling Harvey proportioned characters lately. I've given you the link to the Dark Horse site and encourage fans of Hot Stuff to check out some of the other stuff they've got. I love the mini-statue of Hot Stuff Giggling That's just about the most adorable thing I've seen in a while. Too bad it's sold out! Rats!

Hope you're all enjoying this lovely Spring weather we've been having...those of you who live in a country, state, or province which is currently experiencing Spring, that is!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

At first I titled this post "Dead Girls" because of the common theme...but that just seemed so morbid! It's Spring after all. A time of rebirth and renewal.These are both images I came across while looking through old files. I can't even recall what year they were drawn. The top image was a pin-up for Eric Wight's graphic novel "My Dead Girlfriend". I love the look and style of Eric's artwork on that book. If you haven't seen it I recommend hunting down a copy and checking it out.

This image was drawn for Peter Milligan after he he fell or somehow injured himself. I was inking Mike Allred on the X-Statix at the time...either that or I was inking Darwyn on the Wolverine/Doop story that we did together. That's Dead Girl under the umbrella with Tike and Myles playing frisbee in the background. The little kid is kind of a Dennis the Menace type...I even swiped Ketcham's swirly knees and button nose sported by Dennis and his friends.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I'm late with this update. I've had a few sick days which, when you're self employed, actually cost money :) But I'm better now thanks to a lot of sleep, Neo-Citron and Extra Strength Tylenol!Last week a new comic book hit the stands. Super Friends is aimed at a younger reader than might ordinarily be found in a comic shop and is based on the Mattel toy line...you've seen a few of my "wish list" toy designs here and here. Those are not actual toy designs for Mattel but my own dream toys which which most likely never come to pass.I'm really enjoying drawing the covers for the Super Friends and can't wait for you all to see the JLApe cover!

While I was sick I didn't spend much time at my drawing table. But all that time lying around left me itching to draw despite my congestion...so I would sit in my sick bed with a pad of sketch paper and a mechanical pencil and draw whatever happened to be on tv or in my head. This is a collection of a few pages of some of my favourites. The little women are inspired by the brilliant Arthur De Pins a French artist who's work I think everyone should check out. Some of his drawings are a little "not safe for work". Though even his sex drawings are so adorably cute my Grandmother would love them.

Monday, March 03, 2008

This wednesday (I believe) marks the release of the one shot special Justice League: The New Frontier! In it you'll find many wonderous things to behold including artwork from the animated movie, a new Batman/Superman story by Darwyn Cooke, a Robin story by Dave Bullock inked by Mike Cho and a Wonder Woman story by ME! This is my take on Darwyn's New Frontier Wonder Woman in a terrific story written by Darwyn. I've been wanting to draw Wonder Woman for print ever since I started working in comics and I'm thrilled to finally have it happen. Even more so because I got to work with Cooke! And because Cooke loaded the story with pin-up girls! What more could a guy ask for in a story?!?

This is the cover so you'll know what to look for! Please check it out! I really don't think you'll be disappointed (but then I am terribly biased about this sort of thing :)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

American Gladiators ended a few weeks ago so forgive me for only now getting around to posting my cartoon version of the ladies. I feel absolutely no shame in confessing my love for this show! I'm looking forward to another season, a toy line, animated series, and Halloween costumes.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Just a simple Valentine card for you all! My mom taught me to give a Valentine to every kid in the class even if certain kids had cooties or were gross! I'm sure that none of you suffer from such debilitating afflictions so to you all I happily spread the Valentine love! :)best,j.bone

Friday, February 08, 2008

Space girls are among my top favourite things to draw. If you had a time machine you could probably find something in my childhood that triggered my love of things outer spatial. Maybe it was seeing Barbarella on video at a young age. Or it could have been Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars or any one of the many B-grade Sci-Fi movies my dad would rent. More likely it's a mix of them all coupled with discovering my dad's Playboys (also at an early age :)

But if you had a time machine I can think of a lot more important things you could be doing besides spying on some poor kid discovering naked ladies and science fiction.

So, this is the last of the Horoscopes. Click on the tag at the bottom of this post to see them all one after the other. And now that they're all done I'll be making all of the images available as t-shirts. I'm inclined to use Cafepress just because I'm familiar with it but if anyone knows of a better online service please let me know.

j.p.s. Wow! I'd posted Gemini, checked the Horoscope tag to see the rest of the Gals and did a count. I was still one short. I can't believe I forgot to post Scorpio! She's one of my favourites. Tough biker chick, that she is!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Boy, this one was tough. How to draw a gal carrying two full water bottles without making her a husky body builder proved a challenge. In the end she's still husky but hopefully not unattractively so.

Only Gemini left...she's drawn but not yet coloured.

My most pressing work is this Wonder Woman story I'm doing with Cooke! Holy crap, is it ever fun. If I could just get paid to draw Wonder Woman all the time that would be cool. Although a lot of the joy is in the story that Darwyn cooked up (it's impossible not to pun on his name when you're hopelessly punny like I am). It's only six pages but we pack an awful lot of women into those six pages!!